The Hindu : Sport : Sri Lankan lions roar once again on home turf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2005

Sport

Sport

Sri Lankan lions roar once again on home turf

Sanjay Rajan

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

SUPER SIX: Ashish Nehra, who came up with a six-wicket haul after a long time, appeals successfully for leg before against Dilhara Lokuhettige.

COLOMBO: Limited-overs cricket can be unforgiving. Not that Rahul Dravid is unaware of the capricious nature of the game's abridged version. What the Indian captain did realise, much to his dismay, at the Premadasa Stadium on Tuesday was that it is quite impossible to set a field for bad bowling.

It has been quite some time since India went into an ODI with five regular bowlers. And to do so in the final of the IndianOil Cup tri-series was obviously a conscious decision taken by the team management, which had suffered due to the lack of a fifth regular bowler in the earlier rounds.

Seven batsmen and four bowlers had been the side's three-year-old mantra, something that took it to the final of the 2003 World Cup.

On the flip side, India was going in with a batsman short — off-spinner Harbhajan Singh returned to the XI in place of V.V.S. Laxman — and the side was fielding a two-and-two pace-spin attack.

The absence of an extra batsman, however, told during the chase of 282 for victory under lights, despite Virender Sehwag's blitzkrieg (48, 22b, 9x4, 1x6), which gave the team a 62-run start at 10 runs an over. Sri Lanka prevailed by 18 runs.

Sehwag sizzles

It was, nevertheless, a gallant chase by Dravid's men. Virender Sehwag set the tone when he took 26 off a single over from Dilhara Lokuhettige. It was Sehwag at his best and India needed such a platform to make a charge.

The Najafgarh lad, however, had to stay longer but it was not to be. Sehwag was dismissed immediately, when that old warrior Chaminda Vaas had him playing on.

Dravid walked it at No. 3 and proceeded to take control in a matter-of-fact manner that only he can. Clearly, the blinding start was proving to be a cushion. The captain and Sourav Ganguly built on it with a 40-run stand that saw India reach the 100-run mark by the 16th over.

Sri Lanka held back the wizard off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for later deployment and brought on Tillekeratne Dilshan. The off-spinner struck immediately, when he had Ganguly leg-before.

But Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, who scored a century against the West Indies in the previous match, kept India in the race with an 84-run stand off 116 deliveries. Such was Dravid's focus on the task at hand that it was clear that as long as The Wall was in the middle the innings wouldn't crumble.

The host was a bowler short, when Sanath Jayasuriya's shoulder injury played up, but such is the depth of resources in the side his absence was not felt.

Yuvraj's dismissal, sweeping at leg-spinner Upul Chandana to be caught at deep square-leg, was a blow that India couldn't recover from. Then Dravid was run out when India needed a still-manageable 77 from 67 deliveries.

The pressure proved to be too much to handle for the panicky tail. The flurry of run-outs, as Muralitharan was weaving his web of magic, was a case in point.

Earlier, it was a courageous decision by Dravid to play two spinners against the Lions, who have traditionally been comfortable against the tweakers. Kumble's record against the Sri Lankans hasn't been impressive either.

Moreover, the host had three left-handers in the top-six and Kumble is not exactly comfortable against southpaws. Two of them, Jayasuriya (67) and Russel Arnold (64), scored half-centuries.

The host's innings revolved around Mahela Jayawardene's classy 83. He put on 55 off 77 deliveries with Jayasuriya for the fourth wicket and then another 125 from 117 deliveries with Arnold, which was to be the clincher.

Jayawardene won the man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series award for his spectacular effort. Like Jayasuriya, this stylish batsmen too seems to relish the Indian bowling.

It was also a truly spectacular recovery by the host, which elected to bat, and was struggling at 67 for three after left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra sent back opener Marvan Atapattu, Lokuhettige and Kumara Sangakkara. Nehra eventually finished with six wickets, but his second spell, which came at the `death', tarnished his final analysis.

Kumble (none for 64 off 10 overs) and new-ball bowler Irfan Pathan (none for 59 off nine overs) failed to deliver, which forced the skipper to try out Sehwag, without much luck though.

Left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan bowled five wides and a no-ball in his first spell and was taken off the attack. The Baroda pacer displayed better control in his subsequent spells.

Lucky escape

Jayasuriya was given two reprieves, and the Marauder from Matara made the most of it. He smashed three boundaries off Kumble to reach his half-century. En route, the left-hander became only the fourth batsman after Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sourav Ganguly to reach the 10,000-run mark in this form of the game.

India regrouped in the last 10 overs, conceding 72 runs when the host looked set for more. However, at the end of it all, it was the quite familiar story of the Lankan lions roaring at home.

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